The Keeper's Cryptic Vol I
by Lumina Nocte
Summary: The magic world is bigger than Harry's eyes could see, there was so much more than Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic; so much more evil than Voldemort and his Death Eaters. We invite you to meet James Alynore, a gifted Magus from the Mage's Association of Britain submerged in political struggle and supernatural events alongside the Auror Harry Potter.
1. Chapter 1: The Coldest Night

**The Keeper's Cryptic.**

 **Vol I. The Grand Order.**

 **Chapter One: The Coldest Night.**

Unexpectedly, the cold weather was now affecting the United States and this was not good at all, it could only mean that somehow, the influence of the dark arts coming from Great Britain was getting stronger.

James Anders Alynore and Caydern Flamberg had jumped from New Jersey, in USA. After they tracked and captured an irregular target involved with certain illicit activities, the mission overall was a fun ride assigned to the Luminescent Brigade lead by Flamberg, High Enforcer of the Association who did not lose her chance to do some shopping in the big apple before focusing on the task at hand; the target to capture was Igor Karkaroff, ex Headmaster of Durmstrang now living in Manhattan under the identity of Vladimir Lucashenko, he used to be a Death Eater during the first Wizarding War and received a pardon from the Wizengamot for turning in his fellow Death Eaters after Voldemort's defeat, later on turning out to be the brilliant Headmaster of the famous Durmstrang Institute, but during the Triwizard Tournament held in Hogwarts he fled without a trace when Voldemort returned. For this treachery he was hunted down and killed by his former comrades in Northern Europe by the summer of the ninety-six and two years later he was found in Manhattan with a new identity, pretending to be a wandering wizard doing little amusement acts in subway stations such as making cards fly and transform into birds or mere illusion tricks to pickpocket unwary muggles on the street, this immediately caught the attention of the Justiciars within the International Confederation of Wizards, who marked him as an Irregular (A magic user involved with illegal or dangerous activities that may harm the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy.) and after some depth research, he was identified as Karkaroff, authorizing his capture or elimination if possible, mission commended to two of the best Enforcers the Mage's Association could offer even above the local authorities.

A plan was developed and carried on, but Karkaroff turned out to use violent means to avoid his capture and even when everything went okay in the end, the current situation was not expected at all; After a long hot pursuit and many damages on the New York subway, the Irregular was captured but his extraction was delayed and halted due to the sudden assault of the Chelon Canticle Brigade on the British Ministry of Magic led by the corrupted Pius Thicknesse. The CCB was an Elite above the Luminescent since it was lead by the Vice-Director herself: Lorelei Barthomeloi, the strongest mage within the Association. The Association handled intelligence reports that placed the Ministry and the whole Britain in a corrupted whirlwind related to Voldemort and the black arts, many things were not a secret and even knowing that there was a resistance fighting this new order, the Mages kept themselves away from it until Rufus Scrimgeour was murdered, small offensive moves were made since then and many spies were dispatched to aid the resistance that would not yield to the Dark Arts, but still it was no secret that they, the Association, had the power to bring the conflict to an end, yet they refused to act, it was not Lorelei's desire to finish the war in one strike.

'There was no resistance?' Flamberg squeezed the phone on her hand. 'at all?'

She went pale within seconds. Attracting the worried gaze of James, her second in command. His leader dropped the call with her brows furrowed and turned to see the Lieutenant and their prisoner, both looking at her curiously.

'Hogwarts is going to get attacked tonight…' said the young magi with a strange voice. 'Intelligence made a slip… You-know-who is gathering his forces.'

'And you're surprised about that?' James smirked. 'DEFCON Four, I take it?'

Caydern looked at her watch and bit her lip.

'Three.' said this, she started walking. 'If we jump now we'll be able to be on time.'

'oi what about…' James was still looking at her, pointing at Karkaroff with his head.

'Eh… Yes…' she growled, suddenly reminding that they were on a mission. 'You will come with us, Irregular.'

'And face the ones who killed me? I thought you wanted me alive.' Karkaroff spoke with a hint of fear.

'Only because I'm interested on knowing how you cheated death, but He-who-must-not-be-named is meant to die tonight so you are pretty much disposable in this precise moment.' answered the woman in a cold tone.

'Die?' Karkaroff gave her a daring smirk, his yellowish teeth making him look more like the bearded Headmaster of Durmstrang they met in the Triwizard Tournament. 'You can't possibly dream of defeating the Dark Lord, let alone kill him.'

But James snorted and gazed up at the enormous man, who tilted an eyebrow and smiled even wider.

'Am I wrong, Alynore?' Karkaroff asked in a gruff tone.

'Want the arrogant answer or the honest answer?' the young mage merely smirked. 'either way, how can you ask that after trying to enroll me in Durmstrang?'

'Being the son of the White Magistrate of course you had potential, but not even Dumbledore could defeat him so what exactly you intend to do?'

'Kill him.' Anders said calmly.

There was a sudden silence where Caydern smiled and looked away just as Karkaroff started laughing very loudly, stopping after some seconds and nodding slowly in odd approval.

'Yes… I would like to see that…' he said beyond hesitation.

'As long you stay alive, Irregular.' added Caydern with a chuckle.

Central London, May 1st of 1998.

21:22 - King's Cross Station.

It was hard to ask for a perfect weather these days, rainy and cold with few dimly sunlights, depressing overall, not many would even bother with trying to unfold this mysteriously gloomy ambience and instead they could only withstand it for as long it lasted, completely oblivious about the real reasons behind this. The first day of May had brought many hardships for the Central District of London. Right in the early noon, a bomb alert was triggered in King's Cross station and the whole area was evacuated and heavily protected by the armed police and members from the British SAS who kept the area free from civilians the rest of the day. Though no explosive artifact was found, the red alert remained and no one else suspected the true reasons behind this apparent conspiracy. It was no terrorist threat in the end, but safety measurements to protect many from the ambitions of a few, that night was going to be a fateful one for the whole society and staying idle was in their plans.

It was a cold, clear night that one. The clearest in so long and the coldest so far, one of a kind for certain, if it weren't for the cold you would entirely forget about the times of turmoil going on around the world, that night had something unique within the cold air, a sort of hopeful silence, waiting to see what kind of events were going to unveil, there were already bad news for only a selected group of people, shared through well preserved nets of communication: Hogwarts was about to be sieged by Lord Voldemort and the Ministry of Magic was revealed as a corrupted organism at his service, being intervened by a special brigade of mages outside the Ministry and the resistance against the black arts, the Mage's Association on the other hand was ready to send a Task Force to face the dark forces head on for what they thought would be Voldemort's showdown.

King's Cross Station was under strong surveillance from the military, well armed men who were assigned to patrol the building overnight to avoid any unnecessary situation. about thirty soldiers were stationed on the different levels and areas from the Terminal, the lights were dim but lighted enough to show the hooded figures walking down the platform twelve, the smallest figure lead the march and was flanked by two taller ones, after passing platform eleven; Caydern dropped her hood to reveal her short, crimson hair and bright ocean blue eyes that sparkled when she increased the pace, Karkaroff and Alynore increased their pace behind her, both with their faces hidden under the black hood.

'Your plan is taking the Hogwarts Express?' Anders had asked before they entered in King's Cross. 'Voldemort will attack the school tonight, you already know how long that train will take in getting there.'

'without going at full speed we'll arrive tomorrow morning, yes.' Caydern answered with her eyes fixed on the station. 'I'll conjure familiars to keep the train running at the top speed and cast some spells to make it lighter, we should be there by midnight.'

'But why the train… We could just take three broomsticks and-'

'A loud train will attract more looks and there is a chance that Voldemort tracks us first, we can decimate his force that way.'

'His army got giants, dementors, werewolves, imperiused wizards and even ministry officials, wanna roll the dice and see how only the two of us deal with all that?'

Caydern smirked at his last comment, that fire in her blue eyes only made him shiver but grin at the same time. The platform nine and three quarters, however, was deserted when they arrived and only the scarlet steam locomotive was there, partially lighted by dim lights around the platform, everything was clean and seemingly deserted; Anders sealed the platform behind them as Caydern ran up to the locomotive and whipped her wand forward, sending a blast to detach the locomotive and the first wagon from the rest of the train, she then sprinted around it multiple times, muttering quick words and placing feather-light charms on essential parts of the structure. Karkaroff remained in silence with his hands cuffed to his back, with a celtic symbol magically engraved in his forehead, made by Anders to keep the Irregular peaceful towards them.

'The train is bound to go faster now.' she panted, looking at the train with pride. 'now let's see if my second year theory truly works.'

'Theory?' Anders and Karkaroff asked at the same time.

But Caydern plainly ignored them and climbed the train with a happy yelp, she was actually enjoying the moment. Afraid of how things would turn out, they entered the passenger carriage and Anders chose the middle compartment to leave Karkaroff cuffed to the armchair, he said nothing, his fear for a possible encounter with Voldemort was easy to feel even above of what could be a catastrophic disaster in the hands of Flamberg; everything trembled at that moment and the train started moving within a couple of minutes with the whistle letting out a loud sound that echoed through the whole platform.

Anders was now more than certain that his boss was having the time of her life, but the way the train accelerated like a regular car only made him sit down in front of Karkaroff and hold the armchair really hard as they passed through the first curve with a feeling of the train leaning slightly to one side like it was about to derail. But Caydern's excited scream made them aware that everything, for now, seemed to be okay.

The bright moonlight bathed the Hogwarts Express as it was marching through the mountains bordering the silvery Scottish waters. James Anders Alynore kept gazing out the window as Karkaroff in front of him was snoring peacefully with his hands cuffed to the armchair. It has been quite a long day, indeed, his energy was partially depleted to strike down Karkaroff, who practically turned New York's subway into a labyrinth to run off their reach, for two hours of the morning the chasing was on, Karkaroff took hold of a train and forced it to disapparate and apparate in different tracks and lines throughout the tunnels, being tailed by Anders and Caydern on board of a motorcycle to be finally pushed off his course and getting reduced in the abandoned City Hall Station. Of course all the explosions and detonations caused quite a commotion among muggles, forcing the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) to dispatch cleaners to fix all what the Red Coat's Mages had left behind them.

His eyes trailed off, irises bright blue contemplating how Karkaroff snored loudly and considering him lucky, it has been a long while since the last time he had such a peaceful sleep thanks to the continuous raids and offensive measures against the Death Eaters, yet it was the very first time in so long that he had a chance to sit down and relax in the way he was doing it now, he got lost around the misty mountains on the distance, a familiar and nostalgic sight for him... It was a beautiful night after all, highly strange since the return of Lord Voldemort, yet he couldn't avoid noticing the fast approach of dark clouds in a distance not too far from there. Perhaps a storm? The perfect night was too perfect to be real.

His meditation was interrupted by Caydern's cough, who was standing by the open door of their compartment. 'Mind walking with me?' she asked with a smile and walked out with Anders behind her. They stood in the corridor, Caydern turning towards him with a gentle smile he hasn't seen in a long time.

'At this speed we will be there in less than two hours.' she said proudly. 'Did you send the owl?'

'to McGonagall, aye… Haven't got an answer yet.' Anders sounded worried. 'Think we should call for reinforcements?'

'Blackhawk and her Stonebirds are on the way, although I don't know what way are they taking since she's not here yet; and Thornbreak will be escorting the Queen.'

'The Queen?' Anders let out a snort and laid his back on the window. 'Weren't they in the Ministry?'

Caydern shrugged, letting out a sigh.

'as for the Irregular…' Caydern looked at Karkaroff. 'The augur gave red light about him, but…' She stopped and smiled. 'Long time without hearing a 'but' from the augur…'

'Yellow then?' Anders asked. 'You think he qualifies to take the black?'

'Perhaps. That's your call, Lieute... Woah!'

The train abruptly triggered the brakes and everything trembled with a roaring sound, James fell to the floor mostly by Caydern's weight who fell on him, looking up to the window they noticed that the train had entered into the storm, but there was something surreal about the big drops of water hitting the window, there was something out… Something was terribly wrong. This was the only thought in his mind as a chill ran down their spines and a strong screeching sound confirmed the danger.

'Looks like the plan worked.' groaned Caydern as jumping on her feet. 'Take the six, Anders!'

And so she ran off to the locomotive, pulling out her wand from her pocket. Anders turned back towards the door as the carriage trembled again, the train stopped with a last shake and dark silhouettes started moving outside in the rain, Anders' mind got suddenly invaded by a sharp pain on his right shoulder, a distant cry pierced his ears as he withdrew his own wand from the pocket. He glanced at Karkaroff who snored even louder.

"Dementors..." Anders gasped, clenching his right fist at the pain at the end of his shoulder. "Well played..." he aimed at the door with a trembling wand. "Bombarda!" he shouted.

The door broke open in a loud explosion and a wave of cold rain sprayed inside the wagon as dark, tall hooded figures entered slowly. The lights blinked and a feeling of despair got extended through the whole wagon, Anders groaned and almost falls as the pain on his shoulder got heavily extended through his muscles, the cold drastically increased, crawling through his clothes and making him tremble. The pain kept increasing and the distant sound was approaching: a little kid with an ear splitting cry, his head started pounding, his strength fading... His eyes watered quicker than expected and he gripped his wand harder than before, breathing harder in an effort to remain strong. It was a large group, probably a dozen as he could see from the darkened windows, they approached very slowly, like mocking his efforts. The joint of his arm was hurting too bad to remain conscious and the lights went out with a last shake of the train, only the tall shadows could be easily distinguished, coming closer, the one leading the march was lowering his hood.

"Expect..." he tried to shout, his arm shaking harder, a sharp pain running across it with a metallic noise. "Expecto... Fuck!" he groaned as an angry smile got pictured on his sweaty face. The memory came to him in an excited whirlwind. "Expecto Patronum!!"

A bright platinum light flooded the whole carriage and a new figure made the dementors let out a high pitched shriek, falling back harshly as a platinum beautiful pheasant stood in the middle before running towards them, forcing them to flee and leaving a mortal silence that got immediately broken by another strong shake of the train, then it started moving forward. Caydern had probably turned on the engines again. Then gazed at Karkaroff who had barely moved from his seat. The rain subdued just a little bit.

'Blimey... Wish I could sleep as much as this guy…'

Meanwhile, Caydern had secured the locomotive after finding about five dementors flying at the sides of the train. 'This is all the Dark Lord managed to send?' she muttered with a daring smirk on her face. 'What a bummer.'

Her feet got surrounded by a bright blue light and jumped through the roof in the middle of the raging storm, the dementors swiftly attacked her but she had already chanted the Patronus charm. Her wand issued a bright light and made the whole train tremble violently. The bright light acquired a gigantic shape that grew solid with majestic features and charged forth as Caydern slashed the air towards the Dementors, the massive sound of wings breaking the air was heard and the dark creatures tried to escape but three were disintegrated when the light passed through them.

"Get those two, Nydian!" Caydern shouted as a bright silver dragon pierced the darkness and storm alike, flying towards the dementors who were now shrieking loudly. The patronus beast let out a strong roar when it opened its jaws and another dementor disintegrated as Nydian devoured it. The last two, the tallest ones, got knocked down from their flight and fell onto the carriage's roof right in front of the Magus. Nydian roared again.

'Good job.' She said as the rain intensity started to decrease. The dragon pierced the sky with a sharp sound and the bright light disappeared with the roaring storm, the dementors rose from the floor and attempted to remove their hoods when Caydern turned with a swift flick of her wand; "Ion." she muttered as her eyes acquired a bright silver glow. The dementors froze on their spot, like they were suspended in time.

'Who said you filthy creatures had the permission to kiss an Enforcer from the Association?' asked the woman with a wide, dangerous smile.

But as the dementors fell on her feet, she saw it, and like her mind was in sync with Anders' she heard him yell something before the train screeched loudly once more as the emergency brake was pulled, the magic surrounding it made the train stop immediately, pushing her down and almost falling off the roof, the last thing she saw were the dementors flying away from her at high speed but she couldn't care less in comparison with what they had ahead of them…

The bridge between them and the last half of hour to reach Hogsmeade has been blown off. And if this was not enough, footstep started to be heard, but not ordinary footsteps… She saw Anders running out the carriage, locking all the exits so Karkaroff wouldn't run off, then looked up to the roof. 'You okay?' he asked, and for a moment she, Caydern, seemed to have no idea of who he was talking to, then she nodded and slowly got up to see what approached them from the flanks, the silvery moonlight had returned, shining above four massive figures; two from each side.

'Brass.' Anders called out. His hands holding a weapon she haven't seen on him before; a beautiful sword with obsidian coated blade extended to the very hilt, the handle was covered by a bright pearly cloth and just above of it, the hand guard had four sphere shapings cutted out from the steel that seemed to catch the moonlight above them, ending on sharp edged spikes, the whole blade was shining brightly and beautifully, captivating at first to those who seen it. 'I mentioned it before, but just in case you didn't hear… I'm no giant slayer…'

'But you know how to slay humans, right?' asked Caydern with a smirk.

'Obviously! Most of them, at least.'

'Well then…' she extended both hands forward and summoned two Gunblades with the edges surrounded by a dark mist. 'just imagine they are very big humans.'

Anders did know the basics of how to fight giants, their size for starters was a disadvantage, but the gigantic clubs and scythes they were carrying was the first thing freaking him out, if he failed to dodge just one attack…

'Very big humans…' he repeated to himself, knowing where to aim.

Caydern shot, which instantly triggered the battle, Anders ran towards the pair of giants who roared as they ran at him waving their weapons above their heads, the ground shaking with each of their steps, he evaded the first slashing on his direction with a scythe by jumping above it, pushing himself against the giant's belly and using it as an impulse to jump towards the giant who was now behind him, he slashed forward and the gigantic steel club blocked his blade within centimeters from the giant's neck; Anders landed on the floor for long enough to dodge another mortal hit with the scythe by jumping backwards, he heard a roar from the giant who knocked him down and the floor trembled hard enough to make him lose balance, falling on the ground he saw a giant piece of steel piercing the air towards him, barely had time to roll before it hitted him and when he jumped on his feet he raised his blade and blocked an aggressive slash from the scythe directly to his head.

Anders sprinted away from the train and taunted at the giants who rushed at his meet. His heartbeat was out of control but his motions were controlled, he counted backwards as they approached, ready to attack; they approached running and as soon they reached him…

'Gotcha.' muttered the young mage as the edges of his blade acquired a brighter color.

The sword slashed the air and left a trace of it in the air, the burning rush of power extended itself through his body directly to his left leg, stomping on the ground and making it shake, lifting the earth in form of sharp stalagmites, piercing and impaling both giants, they roared in pain and dropped their weapons, the stalagmites vanished in red spots of light and Anders took advantage of the disarmed giants to launch himself to attack. He sprang forward with his flaming blade piercing the flesh of the giant's chest with a sickening sound followed by a whimper of pain from the massive enemy, the magus' body then disappeared and reappeared behind the other giant while the first one stumbled avoiding the inevitable fall, he, Anders, smirked when he saw the still breathing giant trying to pick up his steel club while the blood trickled down his legs copiously.

'One down, brass!' The young magus called out while catching up his breath.

On the other side, Caydern had already killed one and was shooting her rounds to the second who rushed at her with his enormous club lifted, she warped when he striked and only hitted the ground where seconds ago she was standing. She warped in the sky above the giant and fell above his head, sinking both blades inside his thick skull with great effort, the giant let out a roar and attempted to hit himself with the club, like willing to take her down with him.

She reacted late…

She jumped off with a hurry and lost her balance before falling, she reinforced her entire body before reaching the floor with a loud thud, remaining unconscious as the giant fell beside her, almost crushing her with his weapon. Anders did not notice this, he was running around the remaining opponent and evading his crushing stomping on the ground. The magus warped behind the giant after evading his enormous feet and sliced through the Achilles tendon of the right leg with precision. The result as expected was the giant instantly losing balance and falling abruptly on the floor, bleeding profusely from the wound. Now he was only hearing the cry of pain from the creature followed by agonizing groans. Anders laid the weapon over his shoulder as the bright lights subdued from it and walked to the head of the giant with his right hand casting a hovering ball of blue fire.

'Framkvæma' Anders ordered to the blue fire and it went straight to the dying giant's chest, who let out a loud groan of pain and immediately stopped breathing afterwards. 'Clear here, Brass… Brass?'

He turned around to find Caydern lying unconscious between her two fallen enemies, Anders ran to her to certify she was still breathing when his eyes caught sight of something that had managed to pass above his instincts; he very slowly lifted himself up, clutching his sword tightly…

'Lower your weapon, swordsman. We bring no harm.' said a profound voice that instantly shocked him.

They were brighter than he could have ever imagined and even was having his doubts that his eyes were actually showing him what he was seeing, his sword remained in the air, mostly because he had no idea of how to react all of a sudden. Of course, his first reaction was…

'What in oblivion…'

Anders was facing at least a dozen of pure white stallions with majestic wings at their sides, the one who spoke was dark as the night sky and indeed none of them seemed to be attempting to bring harm to them, yet Anders took a bit of a time to get a hold of himself.

'Are you… Pegasus?' he asked as lowering his weapon, doing his best to hold the urge of touching the leader.

'Pegasi, since we're a flock…' said the creature calmly. 'We approached to deal with the dementors, thinking this was a train full with innocent, then we saw you dealing with all this… It was astounding,'

'He is Crene, our eyes in the stars…' Another stallion walked past the dark one called Crene, a silvery one and brighter than the rest, like the pure reflection of the moon above them. Had a female but severe voice. 'And I am Astra, leader of this flock.'

'Anders Alynore…' he crouched beside his leader and cleared the hair from her face. 'She's Caydern Flamberg, we were halted by force in here…'

'And the sleeping man in the train is…?'

'Our prisoner.' Anders couldn't believe that Karkaroff didn't noticed the whole uproar. 'He's arrested in the name of the Mage's Association.'

Soon as he named the Association, the flock started whispering among themselves and both Crene and Astra looked at Anders and Caydern with curiosity.

'Enforcers, I take it… A rare sight that truly explains how you single handled two giants…' Crene said while gazing at the Hogwarts Express. 'You're joining the great battle.'

'Well I cannot believe Firenze was right…' Astra muttered to herself, yet Anders managed to hear her.

Firenze was a centaur, professor of Divination by the time Anders was in his last year at Hogwarts when Dolores Umbridge was eating more than she could chew in the name of Cornelius Fudge, one of the infamous Ministers of Magic he ever had the disgrace to meet. He met Firenze for the first time back in his third year with the help of Hogwarts' gamekeeper: Rubeus Hagrid, to finish a homework for Astronomy, he came to understand that he, like the rest of the centaurs, were quite amazing with their skill to read the future written by the planets and stars in the sky, he also had heard of the existence of Pegasi but never thought they actually...

'How you know Firenze? Are you from Hogwarts?' he blurted out.

'He is a wise advisor… A little touched but wise.' answered Crene. 'The stargazers saw your approach last night, Enforcer Alynore. But not any normal approach.'

'What you mean?' asked the magi with caution.

'It is too long to explain in the current circumstances.' Crene flapped his wings and turned to Astra. 'We must act with haste.'

The leader of the flock nodded vigorously and let out a loud neighing, answered by two of the pegasi behind them who took flight immediately and disappeared behind the mountains. Anders felt the sting of a bad feeling and reached his sword with one hand, but Crene walked towards him, bending down his front legs and his head, as if inviting him to climb on his loin.

'You can trust on us, Enforcer Alynore… You have a meeting with destiny and it is our duty to take you there.' said the Pegasus with a comforting voice.

Despite Anders' confusion they took flight with an astonished Karkaroff and a still unconscious Caydern on their backs; Anders' knowledge about Pegasi was vague but he understood that most of the magical creatures retain a code of pride and honor, specially these stallions. Astrid led the flock and right behind her Crene was carrying Anders and Caydern, closing the march one of the bodyguards was carrying Karkaroff who was silent as a mouse, there was half an hour left of travel to reach Hogsmeade in their current speed according to Anders' digital wristwatch so he remained in silence, staring at the mountains in front of them and ignoring everything else around them, they were so close and he kept looking for the wizarding town anxiously trying to ignore the whirlwind of thoughts his mind had turned into, the sky was turning darker as they advanced and the wind was blowing colder against them; was then when he noticed his clock had stopped working, being the signal of them entering the magical field, but it was so dark that he could hardly see anything under them and his body started shaking from the cold. They were close, so close.

'You're holding me… I'm not dead after all…' said Caydern weakly, stopping the whirlwind in his head.

'Welcome back, brass…' whispered Anders with a sigh of relief.

'Right on time.' Crene spoke for the first time in a while. 'We're above Hogsmeade, currently taken by Death Eaters.'

'They're heading to the Shrieking Shack…' Caydern muttered, her body shivering with cold. 'We must land here and…' she groaned with pain.

'Unwise given your current state, Enforcer Flamberg.' said Astrid firmly. 'We will take you three to the forest where you'll be safe.'

'The Forbidden Forest?' Anders looked at her with a smirk. 'safe?'

'Hogwarts have changed, Enforcer Alynore.' answered Crene grimly.

Certainly… Things must been worse than they thought for the Forest to be safer than any other place.

'Don't make sudden moves, the centaurs are in distress.' Astra's hushed voice broke the sudden silence into the darkness of the Forbidden Forest.

They had a first visual of the castle when they were descending into the forest and it looked like the defenses were being built at high speed, Anders had the urge of running into the castle but Caydern looked too weak even though he was sure she wanted to join them up as well, so they stayed with the Pegasi as they advanced into the depths of the Forbidden Forest; it got darker with each step and the silence started to discomfort them, Anders had started walking besides Crene with his hand holding the handgun on his waist, he hadn't gone this deep inside the forest since his fourth year when he went inside the forest with Hagrid and Alina to investigate the spiders' odd behaviour (with the basilisk on the loose, the spiders were massively fleeing from the castle to the Acromantulas' nest) and for a moment he could only shiver by remembering the existence of such gigantic creatures, he clutched his handgun harder, having the uncomfortable sensation of being observed, very common by wandering this far from the outskirts.

Finally they reached a clear but small area of the forest surrounded by dark trees but with a clear view to the starry sky above them and the flock came to a halt, staying in silence for one or two minutes. Anders looked back, having a clear view of the castle's tallest towers above the thick trees of the forest, in matter of seconds something terrifying happened…

A voice echoed throughout the forest. It was high, cold and clear: there was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the trees themselves.

'I know that you are preparing to fight.' Everyone looked around, looking for the source of the voice, Caydern dismounted Crene slowly. 'Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood.'

There was sudden silence now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, a strange, abnormal silence.

'Give me Harry Potter,' said Voldemort's voice, 'and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.

'You have until midnight.'

Silence again, this time broken by a soft click and the shuffle of a cloak, heads turned to see Caydern strapping her gunblade to the waist, she was trembling and her eyes were strangely wide open.

'Caydern?' Anders called out in what he noticed was a whisper.

'Huh?' she stuttered and the magazine from the second gunblade slipped off her fingers.

She remained standing, covering her face with a trembling gloved hand as Anders approached her with worry.

'Thought I was being clear when I said we must not meddle with the humans' conflict.' said a voice coming from the forest. 'Yet you bring three here, on your backs as if you were mules, and insisting that we must participate in their issues.'

'Let Astrid do the talk.' whispered Crene to Caydern and Anders.

Five centaurs walked out to the clear, the one in front of the other four had a dim chestnut color and walked straight towards Astrid, who kept her firm composure.

'You keep denying what the stars are telling us, Magorian?' Astrid sounded entirely calm in comparison to Magorian's anger.

'They do not involve us in the fight, and you heard the Dark Lord's voice.' said one of Magorian's centaur. 'They're looking for the Potter boy.'

'What makes you think they're not going to enter here, Blaine? The stars-' Crene started.

'The stars have different meanings for centaurs and pegasi, Crene.' Blaine cutted him roughly. 'If they're telling you to go fight then go ahead and do it, but don't expect us to go behind you.'

'It's true we have different interpretations of the stars.' said Astrid. 'But Firenze confirmed that all of us are sharing the same fate tonight.'

There was a general uproar from the centaurs when Astrid named Firenze, Magorian stomped and stepped up to Astrid who hadn't moved at all.

'That fool doesn't have any reason to claim being centaur!' bestowed the enraged leader. 'I thought you had more sense than believing his misleading prophecies!'

'I did not believe until I found the starlight.' Astrid spoke louder but still calmed, pointing at Anders with her head. 'Then I understood he was right, we're all in danger.'

Anders almost flinched when he felt all the eyes falling on him, even Karkaroff and Caydern were all now looking at him and all he could do was clear his throat to break the silence.

'I still don't know what you mean with starlight' he said confused.

'Wonderful.' Blaine snorted.

'But…' Anders cutted him this time. '... I have come to kill Voldemort, and I intend to succeed.'

There was a general silence until Caydern broke it with a trembling voice.

'If You-Know-Who wins this battle you all will be killed unless you share his ideals and I'm sure none of you share them.' she did her best to keep herself firm as she spoke. 'Whether you join us or not, we don't need your help, we handled four giants and a dozen of dementors on our way here, we can sure as hell strengthen the walls of Hogwarts.'

Said this she looked at Magorian straight in the eyes and silence swallowed them once more, suddenly interrupted by several explosions in the distance and bursts of light near the castle. Anders looked at his magical wristwatch right above the digital one: it was already midnight, the battle has begun.

Magorian turned and him with his fellow centaurs walked away into the forest, disappearing in the foliage. Astrid turned towards Caydern with pride in her eyes.

'They'll surely considerate it now.' more bursts of light and distant screams kept being heard. 'We must prepare ourselves for the battle, here is where our paths get separated.'

'Thank you for bringing us here, guys…' Caydern answered slowly, bowing her head to Astrid and her flock.

'Thank Firenze instead,' Crene snorted. 'He was the one who saw you in the skies.'

'May the stars guide you, James Alynore. Don't let darkness swallow our world.' said Astrid as she turned with her flock, leaving the clear by the same path used by the centaurs. 'watch the skies, you're not fighting this war alone.'

So the three humans were left alone in the clear, hearing only the distant explosions and screams coming from the castle.

'Why exactly we were brought here?' Karkaroff got closer to them, looking around like afraid of something jumping at him from the darkness.

'Looks like Astrid wanted to brag to the centaurs…' Caydern giggled and looked at Anders. 'Do you have a plan?'

'Not stumbling across giant spiders would be a nice start.' Anders groaned as looking up to the castle, seeing how the Astronomy Tower was being covered by numerous bursts of red and green lights. 'There was at least seven objectives related to my plans but all that crumbled apart when the giants cutted our path.'

'Should we improvise again?' asked the red haired girl.

'I'm afraid so, yes.'

'I don't like how that sounds…' Karkaroff looked from one to the other.

'It worked for catching you, actually.' Anders pulled out the man's wand from his jacket. 'now, Irregular, you have become a burden so I have a proposal.

'From this moment you're no longer into custody and as you can see, there's actually a reason why we needed you alive; there is a project you been selected to play part in along with us, you're free to join us and tag along with us into this battle but you're also free to run off and I'll be nice enough to give you five minutes of advantage until I finish what we started in New York. Both options however will end with the same result, it's your choice to either die like a hero or die like a fugitive, mate.' he tossed the wand towards Karkaroff.

The Irregular caught the wand in the air and held it in silence for few seconds, he then gazed at Anders with a malicious grin.

'Show me what Hogwarts taught you, Singularity boy.'

Forbidden Forest Outskirts, May 2nd of 1998.

01:37.

A group of snatchers had stayed behind fighting a couple of gargoyles from the entrance to Hogwarts' grounds, they stood victorious for few moments until they heard footsteps approaching quickly from the forest, before they even had a time to react, a snapping sound was heard and one of the snatchers in the back got pushed off to the ground. They turned only to see Anders cleaving the ground with his sword, making it shake as the pistons started spinning.

'Heartbeat Blitz.' he whispered.

His chant casted bright, crimson spears that came from his blade and in odd shapes, like they were directed straight into the hearts of each snatcher around him, not a single sound from them was heard despite their looks of horror engraved on their faces, the spears retracted themselves into the blade now stained with a reddish glow. He laid the weapon above his shoulder and looked at Caydern and Karkaroff walking out the forest looking at the castle; once magnificent during the night, was now under heavy siege. Several parts of the tallest buildings were surrounded by black smoke and flames while the lower levels were being lighted by duels and bombings from inside and below.

Anders looked to the forest where they were wandering for an hour (even though it felt like five hours instead.) and swore in a whisper.

'Let's go.' Caydern said in a weird tone, running past Hagrid's hut that was now under roaring flames. 'You saw all the smashing Grawp did in the forest, it's recent, I hope they're okay…'

'Everyone is.' her fear couldn't be more obvious, yet he did his best to make her feel better.

It wasn't easy... Looking at Hogwarts engulfed by chaos and flames, more from inside the forest where all what could be heard where distant yelling and explosion after explosion. Caydern was terrified just as Anders was and he knew this, so all he could do while running up the stone stairs towards the Circle of Stones, was to reflect confidence on the outside even when he was numb and choked in the inside.

'Avada Kedavra!' someone shouted from the shadows.

'Protego!' Karkaroff shielded Caydern and immediately aimed towards behind one of the rocks. 'Reducto!'

The Death Eater screamed loud and, to Caydern and Anders's surprise, his body disintegrated in front of them.

'Oh bloody hell…' Anders walked past the spot where the disintegration happened and pulled out his wand. 'Lumos'

The covered bridge that connected directly to the clock courtyard had been blown off, on the other side only countless bursts of light could be seen non stop. The distance was way too big for them to warp and he could only jump alone since he didn't tried jumping with other people too often.

'We'll go through the Training Grounds.' Anders turned and both Caydern and Karkaroff followed. 'Brass, where the hell is Blackhawk and the bloody Stonebirds?'

'I'll go to the Owlery and see if I can intercept them.' she answered as running past him.

'Brass!' Caydern turned and grabbed the keys he had tossed at her. 'Do NOT press the red button! We will look for McGonagall!'

She nodded and sprinted up towards the Owlery tower while Anders and Karkaroff ran down towards the cavern that lead into the training grounds, their wands held ready and the adrenaline rushing quickly as listening yelling and fighting inside the cavern, Anders pulled out a Colt M1911A1 from his jacket with his free hand, the gun was nickel plated with tiger's eye handles and engraving, it issued a low silvery glow when it was fully drawn, Karkaroff eyed him with disdain. 'A muggle firearm?' he asked in a whisper.

But Anders only smiled at him and removed the safety of the weapon, entering into the cavern.

Enforcers from the Mage's Association never should be underestimated.


	2. Chapter 2: The Battle of Hogwarts

Chapter Two: The Battle of Hogwarts.

Remus Lupin found himself in the middle of the ongoing war in the main courtyard of the castle, he had just finished at least five enemies single handed and was observing with a rough breathing how three giants approached them by the viaduct, about to be intercepted by suits of armour wielding swords and battleaxes. They were being clearly overwhelmed by wizards and death eaters, or so it seemed to him as he casted stunning spells towards Yaxley who attempted to ambush Kingsley Shacklebolt from behind a stone pillar.

The clash between armours and giants was loud enough and made Kingsley cast an explosion in the middle of the courtyard intended to cover their retreat, Remus ran behind Arthur Weasley and casted a shield charm to a killing curse coming from a roof.

'Fortify inside!' ordered the man as sending a blasting spell towards the aggressor.

'Don't dally, Remus!' exclaimed Arthur before retreating with Kingsley and the combatants inside the castle.

'Two minutes, maximum.' he smirked before sending another blasting spell towards the Death Eater, who shielded himself inside a stone pillar, in matter of seconds he could see it was Antonin Dolohov.

There was no exchange of words, Dolohov jumped forward in fury and sent beams after beams of bright lights against Lupin, who blocked them all with a powerful shield before jumping to the side and shooting stunning and disarming spells Dolohov easily avoided by running under the covered hall, which Lupin aimed towards the roof on top of the Death Eater and blasted it apart, right at that moment he saw the chance to retreat before the giants finished breaching the barricade of armours but just as he prepared to run inside the castle he saw a black blurry figure running past him from the viaduct at a high speed, his legs turned bright blue for a fraction of seconds as he jumped five meters in the air and remained suspended in it, rising with both arms a dark metallic object aiming at the giants in the viaduct, just seconds later it let out a strong sound followed by a big explosion that finished the three giants and the remaining suits of armour. The figure landed smoothly on the floor and Remus saw the metallic object more clearly for a fraction of seconds before he strapped it on his back to draw his wand, it was then when his face was more clear for Lupin: Long blonde hair tied to the back of his head, yielding slowly to black as his emerald green eyes slowly turned icy blue.

James Alynore smiled at him, a daring smirk. 'You have become slower, Professor Lupin.'

'In my defense, you haven't showed up for sparring with me for months.' Lupin said as raising his eyebrows.

Their meeting got interrupted by progressive jets of red and green lights between the windows of the castle and the coming Death Eaters from the viaduct, backed up by giants.

'Where's Dora?' asked the Enforcer with his wand held ready.

'Safe, with Teddy.' yet he sounded frustrated. 'but, knowing her…'

'Let's see these people off and then we'll make sure she's there.' Anders patted his shoulder. 'Vladimir! Let's give them a boost!'

Karkaroff jumped off the rooftop at their side, brandishing a whip of fire coming out from his wand, chanting unknown words and unleashing the burning fire from the whip to roam around the surroundings in a fast speed, like fireballs flying straight towards running death eaters and hopelessly being evaded or blocked by a shield charm by the exception of a couple more others who caught on fire and started running in desperation, screaming loudly.

'Attack!' yelled Kingsley Shacklebolt with a strong group of students at his back.

Anders saw the wave of jinxes flying from the castle and forcing the death eaters to get into cover and materialised his blade in his free hand.

' _Protego_!' he blocked a jinx from Dolohov who got out the boulder. 'Blimey, you still alive!'

With his mind focused on the giants, he got pushed into a duel against Dolohov and completely forgot he had a blade in his other hand. He blocked another jinx with a groan and sent a full body-bind in his direction that he ended up dodging.

'What a bother!' groaned Anders as blasting jinxes in his direction.

'He's mine, keep going,' He felt Remus' hand in his shoulder and both attacked Dolohov, forcing him to get into cover once more.

'All yours.' Anders smiled and tucked his wand inside his jacket. ' _Unshackle my limbs from this limited state. Unfetter!_ '

His body felt an embrace and a powerful push forward, he channeled his mana towards the strength of his arms and gripped the blade with both hands, running around two giants that were now smashing new suits of armour who rushed into the battle from the castle. He slid past between the legs of the first one and rushed onto the second one, intercepting the slashing he was about to do onto a group of armours at his feet. The blade met the gigantic knife he was carrying in a loud steel clash and the giant staggered from the powerful block, Anders then ran to his feet and before he could even take another swing at the magus, he had already sliced through the tendon of both feet and knocked him down for the armours to stab his head repeatedly.

Anders had time to warp as the first giant he had ran through before was now fully aware of what was happening, it had turned as brandishing furiously a long heavy chain that came from a collar in his neck, he jumped and evaded every swift attack and found difficult to knock it down, he had to try something different.

' _Carpe Retractum_!' he ran for it, the effects of the _Unfettered_ had worn off and he was now on a nearby rooftop, gripping the giant's collar with a purple bright rope coming out from his wand. His muscles reinforced, he pulled from the rope with both hands and knocked it face down onto the floor where several lances pierced its head.

There were now three giants left coming from the viaduct, he noticed as some jinxes from the floor came in his direction, crashing at his sides as he noticed how Karkaroff was dueling against three death eaters at the same time near the viaduct, he couldn't see Lupin and Dolohov but he saw Shacklebolt and Weasley dealing themselves with a large group who wanted to enter the castle, with remorse he saw students on the ground, hopefully unconscious…

' _Depulso_!' aiming carefully, he knocked off the wooden club from the first giant's hand, it looked around stupidly, ignoring how Anders charged in full of zeal with his flaming sword and jumped with a magic impulse, impaling the blade in its neck and slicing with difficulty as they both fell. ' _Flipendo Tria_!' he yelled in desperation as pulling out his wand against the roaring giants.

His vision got blurred with blood as soon they both hit the floor, Anders felt a sting travelling from his feet to his head and saw a small tornado flying from his wand towards the giants, barely knocking them back, he cursed loudly and failed to retrieve his blade when the enemies made everything around him tremble with their running steps. He warped behind them, landing in the middle of the viaduct and almost falling off to the _abyss_ at the damaged sides. He saw the blade in the distance, impaled on the corpse behind two giants armed with a scythe and a pole _stone_. He took a deep breath, waiting for them to realise of his actual position as they stopped dead and were now looking around for him, yet not turning.

The sword had numerous spells to avoid being summoned and it was relatively new for him to dematerialise it with just his mind. He thought fast and he felt struck by lightning when they saw him, something crazy crossed his mind, but… They had started running and everything got quiet, awfully quiet…

'Let me pass.' Anders's left arm lit itself on intense blue fire and he held his ground, smirking at the giants who were even closer now. He was letting them approach on purpose. ' _Release_.' his voice echoed within the silence, breaking something in the reality.

A sickening sound was heard in a sudden, he felt a ripping from his shoulder area and something large forming, coming out from his flesh… Like a third and fourth arm rising like wings. It was a known and expected feeling for him: He would absorb the prana from the environment with every breath and this would rapidly mix with his own mana to painfully grow from his shoulders two massive wings that worked like weapons, it was called " _Singularity"_ and had three seals of intensity or effect, yet the only one he knew to this day was the first one, presumably the lesser one. The Singularity would affect his physique, strengthening it and making it more resilient and heighten his mobility. The wings were bright blue like the flames of his arm and flexible like the flow of water, but firm and sturdy.

Basically the Singularity would materialise his mana energy into two _liquid muscles_ solid as teeth, he could voluntarily control them, hardening them or softening them at will, the Singularity would spread as bright feathers, highly enhancing his speed and allowing him to fly for short periods of time, yet the major downside of this was obvious. Every movement would consume more of his mana and distort the existence around him.

The blue wings formed a shield in front of him and covered his body from the smashing of the giant in front of him, then pushed forward and produced a snap, making it fall. The second giant observed this abnormality with fear and attempted to retreat, but the Singularity had crystallized and immediately shot at least a dozen of crystal-like projectiles in its direction, all of them piercing its back and knocking it down on the floor, bleeding profusely. Anders walked forward, the Singularity returning to the water-like state like majestic feathered wings coming from his shoulder, as passing by the first giant he knocked down, the left wing shaped itself like a sharpened blade and slashed in the giant's direction as it was on its fours trying to get up, chopping the head off in a clean slash.

Anders could feel the stare of wizards and death eaters alike who were near to observe this and even so one of the death eaters tried to send a killing curse on his direction, bouncing off his right wing just as he retrieved his blade from the giant's neck. He then warped right above a group of now terrified death eaters and the Singularity, both shaped like sharp blades, pierced two of them as his blade slashed one and the last one got incinerated by the blue fire coming from his arm. Anders then crumbled on his knees, the Singularity fading quickly from his back, leaving two open slicing wounds in his shoulder where the wings came out from. He hasn't got a time to rest in days and now he was practically overdoing himself after chasing Karkaroff in Manhattan and using his Singularity back then.

'Alynore! You okay?' Karkaroff and Kingsley approached, both looking certainly more energetic.

'Yes… I just need a snack, the kitchens…' he panted, groaning as he helped himself with the blade to get back on his feet.

'If you're heading into the castle, tell McGonagall the giants of this side are done for.' Kingsley patted him in the shoulder and smiled. 'You look famished, the kitchens _should_ be deserted by now, head there first before anything else.'

'Aye, sir.' Anders smiled back at him and turned to Karkaroff. 'Stay with them, if they move, so do you.'

Karkaroff nodded with a smirk and just as Anders turned to see how the battle was going around him, a chocolate bar hit his chest; Lupin was smiling at him from afar, Dolohov was on the ground behind him. Anders chuckled and everything seemed to be looking up as some death eaters were retreating and flying off the courtyard, but then...

'You're mine, mutt.' Dolohov's voice was thick with blood and clearer than anything else.

'Lupin…' Anders gasped. 'BEHIND YOU'

' _AVADA KEDAVRA_ '

Someone screamed. Loudly, loaded with pain and hatred. Lupin's smile slowly vanished and his head turned slightly to the left, towards someone else… His body crumbled in a strange slow motion and everything around Anders seemed to have slowed down as well; his arm moved by itself, dematerialising his sword and pulling out his wand but it was too late, the strong beam of green light that came from his wand towards Dolohov had crashed against the wall as he ran away into the castle.

Then he saw her… The one who screamed as if someone had ripped off a limb from her body.

And Anders felt as if his entire body had been washed with really cold water.

Nymphadora Tonks was furiously dueling with a gleeful Bellatrix Lestrange and only one thought was crossing through Anders' mind when he saw this, this thought however, was linked with what happened next, he was still feeling numb when he saw it and now he had barely noticed that his own body had fallen to his knees.

It happened too fast, almost like it was completely planned so Remus wouldn't go alone. This time he had no energy to react, Kingsley grabbing his arm was surely an overreaction.

His gun fell to the floor just as the first friend he ever had, the first girl he ever loved, crumbled to the floor with her open arms, as if embracing her husband who was waiting for her right behind Bellatrix.

 _What were you doing here…?_ The last and only question he had for her.

Darkness, all around, the only thing that could be seen. The infinite void. The unbearable heat was felt rising from his lungs across his entire body, the adrenaline rush and the fear converged into one blazing hatred when his memories played one after the other in the middle of the nothingness. He felt desperate and sad beyond measure until a heartbeat calmed it. A soothing, familiar voice from very far, yet the presence was so close. Everything was alright, even if it kept feeling like the world was ending that same night, everything was going to be okay… He just knew it, the soft embrace, the warmth of her presence was more than enough right now, he just listened to her heartbeat, his panic was slowly fading away.

Right in that moment, Anders woke up.

'Well, I was starting to think you weren't waking up tonight.' that voice, she was nowhere near to sound like _her_ but still he was _so_ grateful.

Everything came back to him in a hurtful sting through his chest. His eyes found the first thing his nose caught and he attacked the roasted chicken breasts with rice in a dire need. It was only while he was eating that he noticed he was in Hogwarts' kitchens, which were completely deserted with the exception of Ginny Weasley who was sitting in front of him, tending a nasty wound in her own shoulder as smiling gently at him.

He quickly looked at his clock with a piece of chicken in his mouth.

'Three in the morning…' he stared at the clock a few seconds. 'What… How…'

'You fainted, Firenze brought you here, I cooked what I can cook best in a time like this, Kingsley said you were weakened.'

He swallowed and had a hollow feeling in his stomach, recalling all what had happened at the Main Courtyard. Tonks…

'You been in here for at least twenty minutes, the Death Eaters have breached inside…' Ginny kept talking even though he had stopped listening. 'Now that you woke up I can… Hey!'

Anders had lifted himself off the table and was checking that he had his equipment untouched, he then removed his ragged trench coat and pulled out his wand from his pocket.

'Where's Potter?' he looked inside the inner pockets of the coat and started rummaging inside. 'Have you seen him?'

'I did but if I knew where he is I'm pretty confident that I'd be with him by now.'

'Trying to impress me?' Anders smirked as he pulled out a parchment and tossed the coat aside. ''cus I'm not buying it.'

'I'm not.' she spat with a slight pink flush on her cheeks. 'He's in the Room of Requirement if you must know, or at least he was by last time I checked.'

'Why?' he looked at her in disbelief, then opened up his piece of parchment. 'Nevermind, it sounds like a plan even if it makes no sense. _Sýna._ '

The parchment was of the size of a letter and as soon he said those words while tapping it with his wand, small inked spot started coming out of nowhere, drawing what looked like columns and stairs weirdly shaped colliding between them, above all of them, small symbols and letters from an unknown language were formed in vertical lines, very clear and neat for anyone to read.

'What are you-' Ginny had started asking when Anders lifted his hand for her to keep silence.

'Sixth floor, Hall of Hexes, hidden door R.Q.' he said to the parchment in a low voice and all the shapes and symbols drawn in it disappeared all of a sudden.

As if someone started drawing in the parchment at full speed, a detailed map of the sixth floor corridor was shown, placing black dots with labels under them, yet their names weren't easy to distinguish as they were written in the same strange language.

'A small manufacturing issue… Everything is in gaelic or elvish or… Klingon.' he said while trying to distinguish the spots moving here and there across the corridor.

'Kling… what?' Ginny looked puzzled. 'If it's in elvish maybe we can get one of the house elves to help?'

'I already tried, but there are more elven races as far they told me and each of them have their own language and dialect, for them it was like reading ancient chinese… Plus we don't really have the time…' for a wild moment he had lost himself in an urge of discuss this much deeper until he realised of what he was doing. 'Harry Potter, last time seen in the corridor.' he said to the map in a low voice.

The wandering dots disappeared and were replaced by four running dots with the same strange labels under them that came from the east wing, two more dots darted past them. The dot in front of the rest was blinking slowly and Anders understood that was the one he was looking for, he tapped on the map with his wand again and more words were scribbled in the top corner of the map, this time it showed a small textured Astrolabe clearly detailed.

'Thirty minutes ago.' he said while looking at his watch.

'Then the fourth dot is me, the other two are Ron and Hermione.' said Ginny, visibly amazed when the three dots disappeared as they crossed the wall and one dot stayed outside. 'What… Kind of map is this?'

'Not exactly a map but some sort of logbook… It started like a map but then…' Anders once more interrupted himself, clearing his throat. 'I call it _System of Reckoning_ … _Hylja._ ' he said this last while tapping the map with the map and its content completely disappeared.

The magus folded the parchment and tucked it inside his pockets, once more he reassured that his gun was still in its hilt and his equipment was still complete, he then flicked the wand towards his back and projected a black coat with the Ravenclaw's crest embroidered on the chest.

'Thank you for the meal, Ginny.' he said quickly, starting to walk towards the exit door. 'I believe it's best that you stay here while I-...'

'Oh sure, I was here just to cook you a nice meal so you can recover your energies, eh?' she growled as chasing him. 'You're not leaving me behind.'

'Oh but I am…' He uttered while resuming his walk towards the exit. 'I'll send someone to pick you up and keep you safe.'

'Bollocks.' the redhead kept following him. 'I escorted Firenze from the Courtyard after running there from the sixth floor, he said you have a mission and I want to help.'

'I… Firenze?' he stopped and looked at her bewildered. '... I do, but it's something I must do alone, I'm sorry…'

'I'm not a child, Anders!' Ginny stomped on the floor and walked ahead of him, standing at the door. 'I'm capable of defending myself and defend YOU if necessary! I offer my bloody help because I know what I'm capable of!'

Anders stood there in awe, staring at her breathing furiously and could not help but smirk. He had clearly forgotten how much Ginevra Weasley had grown, she even almost reached his height, her clothes were ragged and with traces of blood, he noticed at the same time that even though she looked exhausted, her bright brown eyes were filled with a fire he never saw in her.

'Firenze also left me here because it was _safer_ than outside… I stayed to fight, not to hide.' she kept ranting, her voice resounding on the walls and making Anders giggle at her. 'What is so funny?!'

'I rather not say or you'll bite my head off.' he answered, smiling broadly. 'It will be dangerous, I want you to promise me that you will obey my orders.'

Ginny smiled radiantly, reminding him clearly of the same smile she would give him each time he would allow her a mischief, that same heart warming smile she been giving him since she was six…

'I got three orders, though.' his smile vanished as he lifted one finger. 'Don't die.' he lifted two. 'If you're about to die, run and hide.' he lifted the third. 'If luck is on your side, take the chance and kill them all.'

Anders pushed the door open and Ginny marched right behind him, both with their wands ready.

Flames were roaring in the highest towers of the castle, shadows and dementors flying across the dark sky while the grounds violently shake with giants running to the battle. The defenders of Hogwarts were retreating even further and death eaters kept increasing their numbers, a blazing fire was just starting in the grounds, extending through the forest where giants were fighting against something that kept them from going into the grounds.

A strong noise pierced the heavens and two Apache helicopters soared the night sky, losing altitude as they approached the Hogwarts Grounds.

'Three, four, five giants in the forest.' said a disembodied female voice through the pilot's' radio.

'Aye, Stonebird One, got visual of the targets. Ten Seconds to collide.'

'Stonebird Two, got clear visual, ten seconds to collide.'

'Light them up.' said the leading voice. 'Watch your six after sweeping.'

'Roger, Blackhawk.' the two pilots said at the same time.

The helicopters shot their machine guns towards the giants as they passed at full speed, recovering their altitude and splitting up their joint formation to fly around the castle. Every single fighter in Hogwarts saw the massive birds passing like a fully black distorted shadow for the many spells around it for attempting to hide them from any sight, the sound of their engines were heavily silenced and everyone who could see them breaking the air were unsure of what exactly that was.

'Multiple hostiles on the radar.' said Stonebird One. 'Is sweeping still on the itinerary?'

'Negative, we could hurt our own.' Blackhawk sounded agitated. 'Ailyn, Wiley, you're up.'

Sergeant Wiley Ryan scooped his head outside the helicopter and looked down with a vicious smirk.

'Stonebird One, deploying at the Greenhouses.' he said while opening a bag of _Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans_. 'We're low on fuel and we need a CDZ.'

Lieutenant Ailyn Alynore looked down on the flaming school, her pink eyes analysing every single centimeter and every single fighter on the ground, flickering at the jets of bright light flying everywhere.

'Stonebird Two, deploying at the Astronomy Tower.' she said with a gentle voice.

'Gryffindor… Tower…' grunted Blackhawk with effort in her voice. 'Need to rest… Over.'

Flying above the clouds at a very high speed, a majestic red tailed hawk was tucking its wings as breaking the air around it like a gigantic bullet, at the following second let out a loud shriek and dived at high speed towards the window of the Gryffindor Tower, she knew their common room was deserted and she needed to lie down _so badly_.

She reached her highest speed and within meters to reach the window she opened her wings to violently reduce her speed, then her figure changed, a red tailed hawk with feathers as black as a starless night was no longer diving towards the window but a young woman with long black hair and blazing blue eyes, she rose her wand and shouted something incomprehensible that caused an explosion and shattered the window and its frame. The hawk entered the common room in a dazzling speed roughly broken by her open wings and landed safely in the back of a chair need the chimney, then returned to her human shape.

She was dressed in warm black clothes with a winter cloak covering her frame; Michelle _Blackhawk_ Ryan let herself fall onto a nearby sofa by the fire, her ears buzzing and her whole body aching with exhaustion, specially her arms, chest and back. She took long breathings, closing her watery eyes and forgetting for a split of second where she was until she noticed the Gryffindor decoration, realising that she was, probably and hopefully, the only Slytherin to be in their rival's common room.

Then the sound of the battle and the smell of smoke and burning reached her from the blasted window, feeling as if before breached in the way she did, there was nothing but peace and quiet in the circular, cozy common room.

'Stonebird One here, our boys have landed and we're black on fuel, returning to the COP.' the pilot's income message made her jump.

'Stonebird Two here, our boys have jumped into the Tower, we're returning to the COP.'

Wiley was backed by a team of six fighters, all equipped in black ops gears, carrying assault rifles and SMGs modified for an stealthy breaching. The Sergeant has gotten a hold of Neville Longbottom and a group of mixed students who were carrying pots of Venomous Tentacula, they all looked wary at the group of armed guys who fell from the sky by a rope.

'Longbottom, eh? I'm Ryan! Wiley Ryan from Hufflepuff!' he approached with his power fist down, smiling widely.

'Wiley? What on earth are you wearing? Who are this people?' Neville looked at him completely surprised, almost forgetting that he was carrying a dangerous plant in his hands.

'Right now what you need to know is that we are backup and we will follow you wherever you need us, mate.' Wiley winked at him. 'Reynolds, Grant. Grab a couple of Venomous Tentacula and follow these guys wherever the party is being held.'

'Yes, Sarge.'

'Grimm, Kent. Eyes open, be our flanks.'

'Yes, Sarge.'

'Francis, on me.' he made a signal and everyone started moving. 'Blackhawk, here Wolfpack. Greenhouse is clear, we're on the move.'

Up in the flaming Astronomy Tower, Ailyn had extinguished the raging fire by amplifying the stream of water from her canteen. Her six men were equipped like Wiley's with the exception of herself who dressed in a pure white light dress with black combat boots and long white gloves covering her hands. She brandished an ebony steel blade in a perfect contrast with her white clothing and long silver clothing, she only waved her hand for her men to take positions and get moving down the marbled stairs heavily affected by the fire.

'Blackhawk, here Drakengard, Astronomy Tower is clear, we're on the move.' she quickly lead the march and walked out to the corridor. 'Find my brother.' she ordered her men as they quickly took cover at the sight of approaching death eaters.

'Tangos ahead!' announced one of her soldiers, yet she didn't move from where she was standing.

'Who are you.' snarled one of the masked men, there were at least six of them and all were pointing their wands at the woman.

'Good evening, gentlemen.' Ailyn bowed gently, a tiny smile forming in her delicate features. 'I am Ailyn Annúngilnith Alynore, White Magistrate of the Mage's Association and I have come to disembowel you all.'

Silence was absolute after she said these last words, none of the death eaters dared to make a move.

'Perhaps you have seen my brother? He's a bit taller than me, has long blonde hair, although he loves changing it to black during night operations. Wields a big blade with many accessories and tricks, perhaps compensating for something.' she asked with abnormal calm, yet she got no answer. 'Please, whoever tells me if he's been spotted won't die in the next ten minutes .'

A shaking hand rose from the back of the group and a young male voice spoke with very notable fear.

'He… Terminated a whole tribe of giants by h-himself in the M-Main Courtyard…' said the terrified death eater at the White Magistrate. 'H-he fainted and was taken inside by a centaur.'

'Oh? Funny change of events. Thanks for the information!' she sliced the air in front of her and there was a general commotion when effectively, a sickening splattering sound echoed across the corridor and one of the death eaters fell on his fours, his entrails laying on the floor.

His partners panicked and attempted to run. The blood started spreading on the floor and restricted the moves of the runners and only one of them got time enough to _fly away_ before the blood thickened and started moving on its own like some kind of slimy creature that forced them to fall onto the floor, then it formed and shaped four spears that impaled the four death eaters through their crotches, then their chest and finally their heads, coating them with the vital liquid before solidifying itself and turning their bodies into grotesque statues of a deep crimson crystal. Only one standing was the young death eater who's life was spared, staring at the gruesome spectacle before his eyes and trembling with horror.

'I promised that I would let you live for the next ten minutes, don't waste it.' Said the woman as walking past the crystallized corpses, followed by her men. 'Let's go, boys. I intend to find my brother before this castle collapses entirely.'

Michelle walked out the Gryffindor's common room in a fast pace, going down the stairs and loading up her Taurus Raging Judge with silver bullets as she watched the mayhem happening all around her. There were screams on the bottom levels and jets of light impacting everywhere, knocking down portraits from the wall; she jumped six steps and entered the corridor of the seventh floor, led by nothing but intuition and a horrible tug in her chest… She had passed by Hagrid's hut and saw no trace of him inside the flaming ruins, she already knew he was hiding on the hills but she was so _sure_ he had returned to fight for Hogwarts… The forest was blazing but the animals were safe deep inside it, or at least most of them, she knew the Centaurs wouldn't stay idle, much less after the Pegasi had brought the main piece for their prophecy to become reality: Anders Alynore.

If she went _by_ what Firenze and the prophecy told her a couple of years ago, Anders was to be the one who slays Lord Voldemort and this was the main reason why his sister Ailyn had insisted on taking her _Drakenguard_ to search for him and aid him, knowing how reckless Anders could be at times, she was certain that he would be making his way towards their bastion by that exact time. Even though Michelle didn't believe much in prophecies, she knew he had the potential to bring Voldemort down and her main reason to be there was to aid her home in any way she could even though she no longer had the aerial support she had counted with from the start.

' _Impedimenta!'_ She roared at a Death Eater in the passageway. Feeling numb and completely upset at herself, she sent a powerful gust of wind that sent the frozen body off the nearest window.

She continued down the hallway, following the shouting and the continuous exchange of jinxes, echoing all across the seventh floor, one of those voices, however…

'Here! He ran this way!' Michelle flinched from the window and turned to the intersection that lead straight into the Hall of Hexes.

She aimed both her gun and her wand towards the corner and saw an agitated Percy Weasley with his brother Fred and Caydern right behind them, all of them looking extremely filled with adrenaline and exhausted at the same time.

'Chell!' Caydern smiled widely and ran to hug her. 'You took your sweet time.'

'Bad weather, mostly.' she growled at the hug and returned it in relief. 'Have you seen Professor McGonagall?'

'I'm not sure, we just blasted open a secret passage from the fourth floor.' Percy panted. 'she might be still there, the whole castle is a riot.'

'Surely, I never thought I'd ever see the castle like this.' Michelle turned to the window and sighed. 'There's one good thing, though. It can't be a better night to take a stroll around here.' She added with a smile.

'Best one in a while if you ask me.' Fred smiled widely and clapped his hands. 'We better make the most of it!'

'Have you seen Ginny, though?' Percy asked quickly. 'She was supposed to be here.'

'Sorry, I haven't… I just got here.' Michelle looked back at the redheaded brothers. 'I'll send her here if I see her.'

'I'll go with you.' Said Caydern in a decisive tone. 'I got to find Anders and we should all regroup.'

'His sister is already looking for him and I got Wiley sweeping… Somewhere.'

'Anders' sister, eh? Maybe I should tag along with you two as well.' Fred added with a smirk on his face. 'You'll be fine, Perce! This hallway is practically deserted!'

'You _won't_ leave me here.' Percy grunted at Fred. 'We must stay put and make sure she's okay.'

'We'll get moving.' Caydern patted Michelle's shoulder.

'Don't worry, Freddie. I'll arrange you a small date with Ailyn when all this is over.' Michelle winked at the twin. 'We'll see you both on the flip side!'

Their exchange got violently interrupted by a strong shake and a strong noise coming from the far side of the seventh floor corridor, Caydern and Michelle departed in a fast pace, fending off the fire blasts from the death eaters entering from the not-so-secret passageway. Caydern pushed Michelle behind her and pressed the tip of the wand against her own throat and let out a tremendous shout towards the tunnel, sending an unrelenting wave of chaotic magic that disintegrated their coming enemies, soon as the path was clear, she lowered her wand and Michelle pushed her forward.

While the seventh floor was practically in peace when compared with the rest of the castle, the fourth floor corridor was in complete mayhem, they dodged killing curses that went off course as they closed the passageway and Michelle sent a gust of wind at a hooded figure on his knees, mauling the neck of a Hufflepuff student. He received the impact of it and got pushed away from the bleeding corpse of the student, hitting harshly his head against the wall and falling unconscious on the floor, Caydern shot jinxes at the far extreme of the hallway that led towards the Study Area of the Library, a couple of Death Eaters returned the fire and dragged down a massive bookshelf to protect themselves from Michelle's firearm.

The Blackhawk aimed firmly with her Taurus but quickly ducked and hurried behind the corner as jets of red light rocketed real fast above her head. Students and Aurors ran past them and started firing spells to help the Enforcers, Caydern extended her nails into sharp metal claws and ran at fast speed to intercept the Death Eaters, clawing at the chest of one and viciously ripping his skin as a well aimed hex knocked out the other one behind her. Michelle and the rest of the combatants hurried inside the library and clashed with more Death Eaters inside, books flying off the shelves by jets of light impacting and wildly flying everywhere after one or other evaded or blocked it. Three students teamed against Derek Macnair while Fenrir Greyback commanded a group of at least six werewolves half transformed with a strong reek of blood upon themselves.

'GREYBACK!' Michelle roared with a blazing fury, squeezing the trigger of her revolver after lifting it in the werewolf's direction, to which he lifted a magical shield to absorb the bullets before roaring at her with the same burning hatred.

'Michelle… NO!' Caydern screamed at her partner just as she shook her wand hand and pulled out a silver steel blade from her left gauntlet, she jumped forward and ran straight to Greyback, who seemed to have discarded his wand as well and was running to Michelle with his sharp claws ready to strike.

Fenrir struck first, his claws slashing the air where seconds ago was Michelle's head, then evaded her blade that went straight to his chest, she jumped on her hands with a spinning kick with her left feet, reaching to barely scratch his face with a hidden blade within her boot. He groaned and kicked her in the ribs as she got on her feet, slamming her against a bookshelf and hitting her head with at least a dozen of books that fell on her, four shots were fired from her gun with an angry groan escaping from her lips like a wounded creature, she jumped back in her feet and swiftly replaced the gun in her right hand with a sharp combat knife coated in a strange, opaque liquid.

Fenrir this time focused in avoiding her blades at all cost, slashing in her direction but failing to match her fast movements, she was practically dancing all around him trying to penetrate his skin with any of her three blades but he was quick to see her coming and was always ready to evade her or block her with his massive frame. And the war kept going around them; Caydern had reverted the werewolf state from four of them and had knocked them out with strong stunning spells, the rest retreated and escaped through windows or dropped their wands in rendition, even Greyback ended up _flying_ away through the nearest window in the corner where Michelle had pushed him to. The combatants celebrated and Caydern looked at Michelle with a radiant smile she didn't answer.

'Chell?' She asked warily. 'Are you alright?'

The black haired girl had blood slipping down her forehead, her breathing was out of her own control and her whole body was trembling, her emerald eyes were locked on Macnair, who was kneeling with his hands up and his eyes fixed on the floor, it was in that precise moment when everything came back to her like wildfire, Iktomi's frail body lying in her hands after attacking Macnair who was ready to ambush them… It was not too long ago, or maybe it was? She couldn't remember any longer… She had screamed, that she could remember clearly. She screamed loud enough to make her vocal cords to suffer for weeks, she screamed loud enough to make everyone in that field to turn towards them, she couldn't remember when exactly Macnair had killed a member of her small, shattered family, but she could recall very clearly every single inch of pain and suffering that man had caused to her… And now… She had even forgotten everything about Fenrir Greyback, she had forgotten Hogwarts, Caydern, everything around her, everything that was her. Only Iktomi, who accompanied her for the most important years of her life, only Macnair covered in blood, only Iktomi in her trembling hands, cut in half…

'Chell… wait…' Caydern saw it coming and approached Michelle, who was already walking slowly without noticing.

'Leave me.' Blackhawk looked at her with bright, yellow eyes, blazing with something she couldn't describe but made her flinch. ' _Incarcero._ ' She suddenly aimed at Macnair, making him fall to the side, completely retained by magic ropes that came from her wand.

Everyone still standing looked in horror how Michelle flung herself onto Macnair and smashed his head against the floor, then squeezed his neck and locked her eyes into his, completely motionless.

'Look at me… LOOK AT ME!' she smashed his head against the floor again, tears falling down her feline-looking eyes, filled with blind rage. 'Breathe. Keep fucking breathing. Breathe!' She smashed his head again, making his eyes to twitch, as if fainting. She then let go of his neck and aimed both open hands to his head. ' _Water prana, lend me thy energy to heal him.'_ her words casted a blue light all across his body, healing superficial and inner wounds.

She gripped her knife even tighter, feeling her hand grow numb, she was going to make him feel every drop of pain he made her feel with Iktomi's death. She _had to_ … Her knife sliced through his abdomen in a horizontal motion and forced him to sit as his intestines fell to his knees.

'Look at me…' She lifted his head, patting his cheek for his dark eyes to meet hers.

'please…' He begged in a weak, trembling voice. His eyes fading.

Michelle's lip trembled and the following made everyone turn away from them, Caydern looked in horror how her best friend pierced Macnair's chest with her bare hand and pulled out his heart from his body, holding it in front of his face for him to see… Then she dropped it in the floor and waved her wand in his neck's direction, mumbling something that shot a breeze towards him and cut off his head like it was an invisible blade. She then backed backed off a few centimeters from the beheaded body, dropping both her wand and knife, her emerald eyes staring at her bloodied hands in complete horror and shock.

She screamed…


End file.
